![]() There is also the feeling that I have somehow said my say with The Buddha Diaries, and I'm looking for a different venue, a different project to refresh my interest in writing. Having posted daily, or nearly daily for all those years, I have been feeling some guilt for my neglect in recent months. And, be it said, in truth, with a sense of relief. The blog remained an important part of my life for many years, and I say goodbye to it with both gratitude and sadness. I left The Bush Diaries behind after realizing that I was "waking up with Bush in bed with me every morning." The Buddha Diaries was intended as a return to sanity, a place to explore my growing interest in Buddhist teaching and applying it to my life. ![]() Like most liberal-minded people, I was unhappy with Bush, but it's true that he seems relatively benign when compared with the man who until recently occupied the White House-and still claims he belongs there! Its predecessor, The Bush Diaries (the link is to the last entry) was a high-spirited, light-hearted political blog (it called itself "irreverent") that started at the time of the reelection of George W Bush in 2004. I have decided that, after 2,854 posts since 31 January, 2007, The Buddha Diaries has run its course. Sorry to bother your eternal rest with such inanities! But it's thanks to your own social conscience that such things trouble me as they do. We are held hostage by a political system that has ceased to work, as intended, "for the people." It has been hijacked by a ruthless and fanatical minority and it needs to be reformed, if the country is ever to be better served by an effective, rational, and compassionate government. Most of the people I know are those who share my view, and I like to believe that the majority of my countrymen and women view the insanity around us with dismay. But I'm equally sure you would share my view that the right to make one's own choices should not extend to determining the right of others to make theirs. I know you'd hate the notion of abortion. Witness, too, the years-long attack on abortion rights. Yet a significant number of we Americans-and yes, Harry, as you well know, I am one now-continue to assert their individual rights without regard for those of others. Guns in the hands of demented, ill-adjusted teenagers result in the deprivation of life and liberty for those they harm or kill. If I insist on remaining unvaccinated and not wearing the recommended mask, I will be the one who passes on disease to my fellow-citizens, resulting quite possibly in their death. My choices necessarily affect the lives of those with whom I co-exist. ![]() What I learned from you and from the social environment in which I was raised is that those rights come with the responsibility to observe the rights of others. The terrible, persistent occurrence of tragedies such as this one is apparently no deterrent to a political culture that cowers before the fanaticism of a relatively small number of gun owners and their addiction to a "freedom" they believe is guaranteed by the Constitution.Īs with the current deadly epidemic and the stubborn refusal of millions of Americans to follow the most simple, elementary precautions that could stop it in its tracks, it comes down to the question of individual rights. The worship of guns is pandemic here in America, the political protection of guns owners and the industry that supplies them with weapons is sacrosanct. Imagine, hours later, that son pulling out his pistol and shooting numbers of his classmates-four of them fatally.Ĭan you even begin to imagine such events, Harry? Over here they come as a shock but no surprise. Imagine those parents being called in to the school when their son is discovered making a drawing of shooting victims and appending a big grin of approval, and even then refusing to take him out of school. ![]() Imagine, now, a father buying his 15-year old son a semi-automatic pistol-for a Christmas present! Imagine the son posting a picture of his new toy on social media and describing it as his "new beauty." Imagine the mother of that son taking him out the next day for target practice at a shooting range. I have written to you before of my distress about the political and social culture of my adoptive country.
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